For Sale: Amazing views, the property includes 10 bedrooms with full baths, a professional catering kitchen, 18 garages, a gym, three guest apartments, 16-seat movie theater, ice cream parlor, pool, and a 7,000-square-foot garage/workshop perfect for a cooking show.

At 43,000 square feet, the structure is situated on a little under four acres overlooking the Back Bay of Newport.

Of course I’m talking about the Village Crean. The home John Crean built for the love of his life, his wife Donna.

He designed the main house after Tara, from “Gone with the Wind,” Donna’s favorite movie.

It’s a special place that holds fond memories for many in O.C. because the Creans opened their home to countless charity events over the years.

John Crean started construction in 1987 and completed the estate in 1990. I walked through the doors in 1992 not knowing it would alter my life forever – for that’s when I first met John Crean.

I was there to interview him for a talk show I was doing on local cable about successful entrepreneurs.

Crean was the founder of Fleetwood Enterprises.

Before I met him (I’d never seen the inside of a motor home) I was single – and had no interest in cooking.

Within a year, he gave me away atop the majestic red carpeted staircase as I married Stan, I was his stirring sidekick on our comedy cooking show “At Home on the Range,” and my husband and I owned a motor home.

I’ve laughed in that house and my heart broke in that house the day he died there in 2007.

I’ve been there for birthdays, weddings, charity events and the last time for Donna’s memorial service this past summer.

With her passing, the iconic mansion is now up for sale for $19.8 million.

Selling the estate is Duffy Routh of Star Real estate. She has her own special ties to the Creans.

She grew up with the Crean kids, Johnnie, Andy, Susie and Emily, and considers John and Donna her godparents.

Routh’s dad, Pat, an actor/director, and Crean were buddies. The two even made a few forgettable movies together in Crean’s producer days in the 1970s.

“John encouraged me to become a nurse,” Duffy Routh said. “I got my license in 1978 and nine years ago when I retired, he encouraged me to become a Realtor.”

Never in her wildest dreams did she think one day she would be selling the Village Crean.

“I watched John and Andy build it from the ground up,” she said.

As we sat together last week, we talked about how everywhere you turn in the house you see Crean’s little touches.

On the third floor where the movie theater is, there’s his popcorn machine and posters of his venture into the film business.

I’ll never forget going to a charity event in Beverly Hills with the Creans in the mid 1990s when he ran into Elizabeth Taylor.

He remarked what a nightmare it was working with her and Richard Burton producing “Hammersmith is Out.” I asked why the poster still hung in his hallway if it wasn’t a positive experience.

“It’s still a good poster, and I needed something for that wall,” he told me.

That was typical Crean.

The house holds so many interesting twists and turns.

Push certain panels by the library and secret doors open to hidden rooms.

Most of the woodworking in the home Crean tooled himself in his workshop/garage.

The swimming pool is 4 feet at its deepest, and 3 feet on each side because Donna didn’t know how to swim. She wanted to make sure if the grandkids were in the pool and she needed to jump in, she could save them.

Most don’t realize the Creans never actually lived in the majority of the mansion. They had a 2,500-square-foot apartment off the main entrance.

When I asked about it, Crean told me he and Donna didn’t need much room – he designed the main house specifically for events and family gatherings.

Of course my fondest memories are in the cooking show garage – as we called it. There, we taped 250 episodes of our show before live audiences. When we wrapped in 1998 there were more than 3,000 people on a waiting list to see it.

Routh held a broker preview this week. The house is being offered with or without the furniture and went up for sale officially on Thursday.

I drive by the Village Crean every day on my way home. And I smile as I remember it’s where my life changed, and my best friend lived.

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.